FRED ROBERTS HOTEL

THE MARTIN THEATER / THEATRE DUBLIN

CARNAGIE LIBRARY

FIRST NATIONAL BANK - GEORGIA MILITARY COLLEGE

First African Baptist Church

In this church, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., made his first political speech in 1944.

Martin Luther King, April, 1944

PIECES OF OUR PAST

PIECES OF OUR PAST is a blog which features my columns on the history of Laurens County, Georgia and East Central Georgia as well as my photographs which document little seen pieces of our present.

I hope you enjoy them and I encourage you to write about your own history and heritage. No one's heritage is any less important than any one else's. You can find history wherever, you look, in your family, your church, your profession, your hobbies, your neighborhood, your community, etc. As you read pieces of our past remember that our most important history is in our future and not in the past.

Col. John Laurens, of South Carolina

Namesake of Laurens County, Georgia

CSA Monument

Laurens County

WRITING

It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn't in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals.There are a lot of people who are doing wonderful things, quietly, with no motive of greed, or hostility toward other people, or delusions of superiority. The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines. "I believe writing is derivative. Good writing comes from good reading. I can't tell you which writer's rhythms that I am imitating. It's not exactly plagiarism, it's falling in love with good language and trying to imitate it" CHARLES KURALT

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Dublin City Hall, 1904-1959

OCONEE RIVER BRIDGE, 1914

MRS. FRANCES FORDHAM POWELL

Mrs. Powell was one of the best teachers ever to teach in the Dublin City School System. She taught English to me in the 11th grade (1972-1973,) Although I admit my writing style comes from television and documentary programs and life in general, Mrs. Powell laid the basic foundation of the way I write along with thousands of us who were lucky enough to have had her.

Popular Posts

Georgia Bulldog fans around the country should give a great deal of thanks to several Laurens Countians for Jake Fromm and the Bulldog's phenomenal season and an appearance in the National Championship game on Monday.

Jake Fromm, who has led the Bulldogs to within one victory and a NCAA National Championship, is a son of James E. Fromm and Julie Lee Haskins.

James Fromm,was once associated with Mid State Pools in Dublin and now operates a store in Warner Robins. James is a son of Randall Fromm and Jennifer Cooper Fromm. Jennifer is the daughter of Virgil and Saralyn Cooper, a contractor and banking secretary here in Dublin. Jennifer Fromm is the niece of retired pharmacist, Mark Cooper at Oatt's Drugs.

Lee Fromm, Jake's mom and best cheerleader, is a daughter of Bill and Julianne Haskins, of Dudley. Bill is the son of Blanton Haskins and Julianne Haskins of Dudley. Julianne is the daughter of Ralph and Caroline Raines of Wrightsville.

David Brack, a tough, hard nosed yet loving former Georgia State Patrol officer, died this weekend. David grew up in Dublin and lived here in the last years of his life. Major Brack died this weekend. David was a retired Major with the Georgia State Patrol, serving 34 years with the GSP. Oficer Brack rose to the rank of major, the third highest rank on the Georgia State Patrol. Brack, was also one of highest ranked native Laurens Countians to serve on the State Patrol.

While with the State Patrol, David served as the Head of Security for Governor Sonny Perdue, Head of Security for the World Wide G-8 Summit, He led the SWAT Team for the State of Georgia, Supervisor in Governor's Task Force on Marijuana. He was a member of the Fraternal Order of Police, member of Laurens Masonic Lodge #75. David Coached Football at Trinity Christian School for Eight Years. He was a member of Dudley Baptist Church.

There is a story, said to be true, about an Army officer traveling from Jacksonville, Florida to Macon, Georgia in the late afternoon of a day in the middle years of World War II. Parts of it I have to explain to those of you who have not lived in or near Dodge County for a long time. For those who have, you will know exactly what I am talking about.

It was getting dark and the officer decided it would be a good idea to stop in Hawkinsville to get something to eat, fearing that there would no place open by the time he got to his destination in Macon. So, he pulled in at a roadside eating joint. Beside the front door were two older gentlemen sitting on a bench. As he approached the men, the officer saw one of them reading a newspaper with a big headline on the front page. The man read out loud, "Germans take Milan." Here's the explaining part. The man pronounced the word "Mi-lun," a reference to a small town in southeastern Dodg…

If you have been to funerals in Dublin since the late 1950s, chances are you know Hugh D. Moore, Jr.. You don't know him from the front pages of the newspaper. People like Hugh are not on the front pages. Hugh's name has only been on the front page twice, once as a member of Boy Scout troop and as a giver to the Christmas Basket Fund.

But on nearly every day of every year for the last six decades, Hugh arises from bed and puts on the uniform of the day, a dark suit and a dark tie, and heads off to work. He does his job with dignity, honor, and with a sense of personal satisfaction that he has admirably served his clients in times of grief and suffering.

Hugh D. Moore, Jr. was born on March 4, 1938 to Hugh D. Moore, Sr. and Sara Davis Moore in Washington County. Hugh spent most of his youth growing up on Mary Street and going to school in Dublin, where he graduated from Dublin High School in 1956. Hugh's strong work ethic was sealed when he wor…

The first day in the 90-year life of Thomas M. "Jack" Key came on a Sunday, July 2, 1922 when "Brother Jack" Key was born to Morris Denton Key and Bertha Flanders Key.

"The most powerful influence of my life was my home, my mother and daddy," Key declares. His roots run deep into the communities around Adrian, Georgia. Among his ancestors he counts the Keys, Flanders, Sumners, Hightowers, Beasleys, Drakes and Smiths, all of whom have lived in the area for nearly two centuries.

"My mother had seven years of education. She taught school for a couple of years in a little school close to Poplar Springs Church," spoke Jack of his dear mother.

"Daddy had four years of education between plowings. He read a lot - history and Christian books - and could have gone to college. Many said he was the best man in Adrian," Key said of his father, who had never been any further away from h…

Ronnie Gay, Lamar Jackson and Quinnon Sheffield were actual
troopers of the Georgia State Patrol when the movie was filmed
in 1977. The troopers basically played themselves in this popular
movie of the 1970s.

Out of a desolate grove of once bountiful pecan trees on the banks of the Oconee River grew a complex of buildings which changed the face of life in Laurens County forever. On a cool St. Patrick's Day morning in 1947, bulldozers began clearing the site for the location of one of the most modern woolen mills in America. For six decades, the men and women of J.P. Stevens and Company and later Forstmann and Company went to work. With a pride unrivaled anywhere else in the community, these folks, our folks, produced the finest textile materials in the world. This is the story of the beginning of the "Woolen Mill," and its impact not only on the styles of our garments, but the styles of our lives. (

The construction of the Stevens mill in East Dublin was supervised by Colonel John Baum. In the year after the end of World War II, John Baum (LEFT) was sent to survey cities in the South for the company's first mill outside of New England. Baum, a member of G…

You may have never heard of Hartford, Georgia. If you have, you may have never thought of it as being in Laurens County. But from December 10, 1807 to December 10, 1808, this ancient and dead town of Central Georgia lied within the bounds of Laurens County. Located at an important crossing spot on the Ocmulgee River, Hartford became the first county seat in Georgia named for a woman. By the slimmest of margins, Hartford failed to become one of the most important cities in
Georgia history.

The area which became Hartford, Georgia was located on the eastern banks of the Ocmulgee River, opposite Hawkinsville. The State of Georgia acquired all of the land between the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers from the Creek Nation under the treaty of Ft. Wilkinson in 1801. Hartford, located at the extreme southwestern limits of the state at a point where the Lower Uchee Trail crossed the Ocmulgee River, became an important and strategic location for th…

We were scared. The threat of Russian attack on our country was real - underline “real.” The Cold War was never more cold than it was in 1960. Sitting right near the center of Middle Georgia was the Air Force base at Warner Robins, which would have been a prime objective of an attack on the southeastern United States. Local governments were establishing Civil Defense departments in case of a land war or nuclear attack. It was the days when a Nike was a missile, and not an athletic shoe.

The Air Force set up a defensive perimeter around Warner Robins. One early warning base was established near Byron and the other five miles south of Jeffersonville. The eastern base was built in 1960 in Twiggs County just off Highway 96 about a quarter mile northeast of its intersection with I - 16 at Exit 8. The mission of the bases was to detect an incoming enemy missile or plane and to shoot it down with their batteries of Nike missiles.